Epoxy resin is widely used in epoxy cast electrical equipment such as dry-type transformers and dry-type reactors due to its good mechanical strength, chemical corrosion resistance, and excellent electrical insulation performance. However, the irreversible cross-linking network formed after curing makes it difficult to degrade and recycle retired electrical equipment. Researchers have developed a series of biodegradable resins with high electrical thermal mechanical properties and degradation characteristics by introducing dynamic covalent bonds. However, epoxy electrical equipment such as dry-type transformers and dry-type reactors that operate in complex environments such as high temperature, high electric field, and mechanical vibration for a long time can experience performance degradation due to resin aging, which affects their service life. The changes in the cross-linking structure of epoxy resin caused by thermal oxidative aging may have a certain impact on the service performance and degradation recovery characteristics of degradable resins. This article used the ester exchange catalyst triethanolamine to construct a degradable epoxy resin system, and conducted accelerated thermal oxidative aging tests on it to analyze the effects of aging time and catalyst on the service performance and degradation characteristics of degradable epoxy resin.
Firstly, this article used ester exchange catalyst triethanolamine to construct a degradable epoxy resin system, and used traditional non degradable epoxy resin as a reference to conduct thermal oxidative aging tests on resins with different triethanolamine contents at three temperatures of 180℃, 200℃, and 220℃. Then, the performance changes of different resin systems after aging were studied through comprehensive analysis of electrical properties, thermogravimetric analysis, dynamic thermomechanical analysis, mechanical properties and microstructure analysis. The bending strength retention rate was used as an aging index to estimate the service life. Finally, this article also explored the influence of thermal oxidative aging on the degradation properties of degradable resins.
From the experimental analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) The insulation and electrical performance of the degradable epoxy resin system after high-temperature aging is slightly worse than that of traditional resins, but the degradation rate of the insulation performance of degradable resins is slower than that of traditional resins under 200℃ and 220℃ conditions, with V-TEOA-0.05 maintaining better electrical performance. (2) The thermal stability of the degradable epoxy resin system is slightly inferior to traditional resins, but V-TEOA-0.05 has a higher storage modulus and a slightly lower glass transition temperature, and also exhibits good thermal properties. (3) As the aging temperature increases, the difference in flexural strength between degradable epoxy resin and traditional resin after aging gradually narrows, and remains basically unchanged after 49 days of aging at 220℃. The estimated lifespan of the V-TEOA-0.05 system shows a temperature index of 163.13℃, demonstrating excellent heat and oxygen aging resistance. (4) In the mixed solution of EG and TBD, the degradation rate of V-TEOA-0.05 sample decreases with increasing aging time, which may be related to the increase in resin crosslinking density, decrease in free volume, and decrease in ester bonds.

Polymer insulation materials such as epoxy resins generate micro-scale damage under long-term electrical-thermal aging and mechanical stress, which induces insulation failure and seriously threatens equipment operation safety. Microcapsule technology realizes the independent repair of micro-scale damage of insulating materials, however, most of the existing microcapsule self-repairing technology adopts liquid repairing agent, which has the problems of irreversible curing and only single repairing, and also needs a strong external force to be triggered passively. In this paper, microcapsules with magnetic field targeting effect composed of the phase change material octacosane ware prepared by using Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles as Pickering emulsion stabilizers, which were composited with normal temperature curing epoxy resin to form an insulating material with self-repair function. The solid-liquid transformation of the phase change material octacosane repair agent is reversible, which gives the composite material the property of being able to be repaired repeatedly.
Ultrafine Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles were used as the oil-in-water emulsifier. During the formation of phase change microcapsules, Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles were at the junction of water and oil (melted eicosanoids), and when the eicosanoids were cooled down to room temperature, the Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles were wrapped around and embedded in the outer surface of solid eicosanoids, thus forming phase change microcapsules. The Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ nanoparticles embedded on the surface of the solid eicosanoids reparative material have the dual functions of targeted migration in response to a directional magnetic field and focused infrared targeted heating, which can attract the microcapsules to the damage-prone parts of the composite material under the action of a directional magnetic field. At the same time, an appropriate amount of silane coupling agent-modified Al₂O₃ nanoparticles were introduced into the epoxy resin matrix to enhance the thermal conductivity and insulation strength of the composite material. When microdamage was generated, focused infrared light was applied artificially and conveniently under charged conditions to target heating of the microcapsules, which induced the phase change microcapsules in the damaged area to melt and flowed out rapidly to fill the damaged channels. Upon cooling and solidification, the material realized autonomous repair. In this paper, the microstructure and thermal stability of the microcapsules and the insulating and thermal conductivity of microcapsules/nano-Al₂O₃/epoxy composites were experimentally investigated, and finally the self-repairing performance of the composite insulating material was tested on the surface of the mechanical scratch damage to verify the self-repairing characteristics of the composite material.
The following conclusions can be reached from test analysis: (1) The particle size of the microcapsules is uniformly distributed, and the cumulative 80% frequency range is concentrated in 50.02~138.56 μm. Additionally,they maintain stability and do not decompose thermally below 200℃. (2) The magnetic targeting induction technology can improve the self-repairing efficiency of the material and reduce the doping amount of the microcapsules, so as to maintain the good intrinsic performance of the substrate; The doping of nano-Al₂O₃ particles endows the composite material with excellent thermal response characteristics for targeted infrared radiation heating. (3) The relative dielectric constant of the 2% microcapsules/1% Al₂O₃/EP composites is approximately equal to that of the pure epoxy resin, and the dielectric strength has been improved by 2.32%. The composites are capable of repairing mechanical scratch damage autonomously, and can fully fill the scratch damage channels on the material surface. The insulation strength can be restored to 90.78% of the undamaged one.

Dry-type transformer is to high voltage level, high power density direction, long-term operation in the electro-thermal cooperative multi-stress complex working conditions such as epoxy resin casting insulation is more likely to induce along the surface flashover failure. In order to study the characteristics of epoxy resin along the surface flashover under the stress of electro-thermal cooperative aging, this paper builds a platform for flashover along the surface under AC stress, and it is found that when the aging temperature is 160℃, the flashover field strength of the epoxy resin specimen aged for 80 days is 2.11 kV/mm, which is a decrease of 25.7%. The steepest decrease in the field strength along the surface is found from 0 to 40 days, which is related to the rapid increase in the surface roughness of the specimen from 0 to 40 days.
A plasma model of epoxy resin flashover along the surface is established by combining the continuity equation of charged particles, the average electron energy equation and the interfacial reaction characterization equation, and the dynamic simulation of flashover along the surface at the working frequency is realized. According to the results of the aging experiment, a random function is introduced to change the surface roughness of the medium, and the dielectric constant after aging is combined to simulate the accurate electro-thermal aging behavior of the epoxy resin, and the temporal and spatial evolution laws of the tangential electric field strength, electron density and surface charge density of the epoxy resin in the process of flashover before and after aging are obtained. The simulation results show that the electron density and surface charge density increase during the flashover development of the aging epoxy resin, and the electric field strength at the head of the flow injection reaches 1.183 kV/mm at 12 ns, an increase of nearly 10.87%. With the aging specimen due to the roughness and dielectric constant increase, its surface charge density will occur surge phenomenon, compared with the aging specimen before the increase of 57.66%, so that the electron density quickly reached the threshold value of the electron collapse to flow injection, resulting in the development of the flashover becomes faster.
The mechanism of combined electro-thermal aging on the surface charge of epoxy resin specimens is explained by the trap effect, and the reason for the decrease in the flash field strength of the specimens is clarified. For the specimen aged for 80 days, the deep trap density and energy level increase to 2.56×10¹⁶ eV^-1·m^-3 and 1.06 eV, respectively, resulting in an increase in the probability of charge entry trapping, which leads to a large amount of surface charge accumulation, and the electric field distortion becomes more serious, thus decreasing the flash-coincidence field strength along the surface. The above findings provide theoretical and methodological basis for the fault operation and maintenance and life prediction of dry-type transformers.

The oil-filled terminal adopts a solid-liquid composite insulation composite structure composed of silicone rubber (SiR) stress cone and silicone oil (SO) inside. Compared to the cable body, when the composite insulation interface is invaded by moisture or contains air gaps or impurities, it can cause electric field distortion. This distortion can trigger creepage and even flashover along the surface of the stress cone, significantly impacting the service life of the oil-filled terminal. Among them, moisture intrusion is recognized as the main factor causing insulation deterioration in cable terminals, and cable termination failure rate caused by it account for about 50%. Therefore, the moisture migration process and equilibrium characteristics between SO and SiR solid-liquid medium in the oil-filling terminal need to be further studied. In this paper, the moisture migration law between SO-SiR composite insulation system in oil-filled terminals is systematically studied, the swelling model and mechanism of SO in the terminals are discussed, and the moisture equilibrium characteristics of SO-SiR composite insulation systems under the effect of temperature and swelling are clarified.
Firstly, this study conducted moisture absorption experiments on SO and SiR under various temperature and humidity conditions. The water content of SO and SiR at different temperature and humidity equilibrium states was measured. Using the indirect equilibrium theory, a moisture equilibrium curve for the SO-SiR composite insulation was plotted. The results show that the water content of SO has a linear relationship with the relative humidity at the same temperature, and the saturated water content of SO changes exponentially with temperature. The water content of SiR has a nonlinear relationship with relative humidity, and the saturated water content of SiR does not change with temperature. As the temperature rises, moisture migrates from the SiR to the SO.
In addition to the moisture migration between the SO and the SiR duplex medium in the oil-filled terminal, the SO will also diffuse into the SiR. This diffusion destroys the physical and chemical cross-linking results of the SiR, and affects the moisture absorption characteristics of the SiR. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the physical mechanism underlying the swelling of SiR by SO. The results show that the SO swells into the SiR in the form of free state and bound state according to the Langmuir diffusion process. With increasing time, the swelling rate increases as a logarithmic function. With increasing temperature, the equilibrium swelling mass remained unchanged, but the swelling rate increased. Under the SO (solvent)-SiR (solute) system, the elastic free energy of the system increased due to the swelling of SO, which was offset by the Gibbs free energy. Finally, the total free energy is zero, and the swelling reaches equilibrium.
On this basis, the moisture equilibrium curve of SO-SiR composite insulation was further optimized. After the swelling of SO, the free volume of SiR increases, which can dissolve more water. However, SiR with different degrees of swelling still exhibits the same water absorption characteristics as unswollen SiR. Combined with the moisture dissolution characteristics of SO, the moisture equilibrium surface diagram of SO-SiR composite insulation under temperature and swelling was drawn. With increased swelling, water molecules migrate from the SO to the SiR. Through this surface diagram, the water content of SO and SiR under different equilibrium states can be obtained, and the operation and maintenance of oil-filled terminals can be guided.

As the advancement of Industry 4.0 continues, the power and energy sectors are rapidly undergoing intelligent and digital transformation, leading to the emergence of digital twin technology in the field of electrical equipment. As critical primary equipment, power transformers greatly benefit from the development of digital twin models, which enhance operational reliability, maintenance efficiency, and fault prediction capabilities. However, model-driven digital twin models are often constrained by slow computation speeds. To address this issue, this paper constructs a simplified field-circuit coupled model for oil-immersed power transformers using Modelica, aimed at reducing computational complexity. Additionally, to further enhance computational efficiency, the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) method is applied to the field computation section for order reduction.
Firstly, we investigate the heat generation, heat dissipation mechanisms, and oil flow circulation of a 35 kV, 800 kV·A scaled-down oil-immersed self-cooled (Oil Natural Air Natural, ONAN) converter transformer prototype. Based on this, a simplified method for coupling thermal and circuit calculations and an equivalent modeling approach for the temperature rise of the converter transformer are proposed. Subsequently, the implementation method and encapsulation form of the thermal circuit coupled model using Modelica are discussed. POD is then employed to reduce the order of the field computation section. Finally, temperature rise experiments on the converter transformer are conducted, and the model's computational data is compared with the experimental results.
The comparison between the model’s computational data and the experimental results reveals significant differences in the range of 0.5 to 2 hours, with the maximum discrepancy reaching 9.8 K at the top sampling point. As the operating time increases, the temperature rise difference gradually diminishes, and the temperatures converge in the steady state. Whether the radiator is considered significantly impacts both the magnitude of the winding temperature rise and the hotspot location. In the steady state, excluding the radiator results in a maximum temperature error of 11.39 K between the model’s calculations and the experimental data, whereas the proposed model's maximum temperature error is 1.37 K, and the full-order model's maximum temperature error is 0.82 K. In terms of computational efficiency, the proposed model takes a total of 3.328 hours under the temperature rise condition, which is 258.65 times faster than the full-order three-dimensional model. Compared to the full-order field-circuit coupled model, the computational speed is increased by 5.1 times.
From the analysis of the model's computational results and the experimental data, the following conclusions can be drawn: (1) The proposed model has a maximum temperature error of 1.37 K compared to the experimental results, making it suitable for temperature rise calculations and winding hotspot analysis of converter transformers. (2) For oil-immersed self-cooled converter transformers, excluding the complete oil flow circulation with the radiator in temperature rise calculations may lead to significant deviations in both the magnitude and location of the winding hotspot temperature rise compared to actual conditions. (3) The proposed model effectively reduces computational costs through the thermal circuit coupling and POD order reduction methods. Compared to the full-order three-dimensional model, the computation speed is increased by 258.65 times, and compared to the full-order field-circuit coupled model, the computation speed is increased by 5.1 times, better meeting the timeliness requirements of digital twin models.

Internal short circuit is one of the most serious faults in transformers, which can lead to a rapid increase in fault energy in a short period of time and easily cause high-energy discharge and explosion inside the equipment. However, there are many potential combinations of internal short circuit conditions in transformers. The analysis method of field-circuit coupling commonly used by transformer manufacturing enterprises has the problems of excessive time and resource consumption. And it is difficult to model jointly with the external power grid. Existing circuit models face difficulties in multi-scale coupling characterization and parameter calculation of windings.
This article focused on the urgent need for transformer short circuit fault analysis. A construction method of multi-scale fault analysis model for single-phase transformer with internal short circuit was proposed. Firstly, based on the multi-scale characteristics of transformer windings and internal short circuit faults, the transformer windings were virtually divided into several sub-windings using axial segmentation. By parametrically scanning the finite element model of the transformer, the self-mutual inductance matrix and resistance matrix of sub-windings was calculated. Secondly, an calculation method was proposed to transform the self-mutual inductance matrix into the coupled leakage inductance matrix, which could effectively characterize the leakage magnetic characteristics between sub-windings. This parameter calculation method could be carried without port short circuit tests, which solved the problem of parameter calculation for existing multi-winding transformer models. Finally, a multi-scale circuit model for transformers was established based on the coupled leakage inductance matrix. By connecting the terminals of each sub-winding based on the electromagnetic connection relationship and the physical process of internal short circuit, transformer fault analysis models for different internal short circuit conditions could be obtained. The problems of low efficiency and poor circuit adaptability in the fault analysis model based on field-circuit coupling were solved.
Furthermore, a disk-scale circuit model of an 80 MV·A single-phase transformer was constructed. A comparative simulation was conducted with the finite element model. The results indicated that the errors of the short-circuit impedance and the peak value of the port current at rated operating condition were almost zero. And the simulation time was reduced by about 99.98%. After single inter-turn short circuit faults, the errors of the first peak values of the port currents and short-circuit currents did not exceed 2.5%. The simulation efficiency was improved while ensuring simulation accuracy. Then, based on a certain engineering accident, a developmental inter-turn short circuit analogy simulation analysis was carried out. The errors of the first peak values of the port currents and short-circuit currents after the fault, as well as the local peak values during the fault development process, did not exceed 5.5%. And the duration of the second harmonic percentage of fault differential current accounting for more than 15% of the circuit model was calculated to be 49 ms. It was consistent with the finite element model calculation results. The existing method was 14ms. Therefore, the proposed construction method of multi-scale fault analysis model for single-phase transformer with internal short circuit can accurately simulate the transient characteristics of transformers with internal short circuit under multiple scales and operating conditions. This method provides a basic model for research on equipment accident analysis, traceability, and fault defense.

The catenary insulator is a critical component of the traction power supply system for high-speed railways. It not only provides electrical control insulation but also plays an essential role in supporting the catenary arm structure. Therefore, the operational safety of the insulator is directly related to the stability of the entire high-speed railway system. However, the detection of insulator defects is often subject to various interferences due to the complex and dynamic railway environment, resulting in low detection accuracy. Moreover, traditional detection methods generally only identify the presence of defects but fail to provide specific semantic descriptions of these defects. This limitation significantly hampers the efficiency of fault diagnosis and maintenance operations. To address these challenges, this paper proposes a defect description method for insulators based on a diffusion model. This method optimizes existing detection technologies in several ways, enabling the model to not only detect insulator defects more accurately but also generate detailed textual descriptions of these defects.
Firstly, we designed a large-kernel spatial selection feature extraction network. Compared to traditional feature extraction networks, this network captures the feature information of insulator defects through larger spatial convolution kernels, significantly enhancing the model's ability to extract insulator defect features. The model can accurately identify potential defects in the insulator, even in complex backgrounds. Secondly, we proposed a detection decoder with a fusion diffusion mechanism based on the diffusion model. This decoder generates noise boxes and uses inverse Bayesian diffusion to restore predictions of the insulator's true bounding box, significantly improving the model's resistance to background interference. This innovation allows the model to more effectively isolate background noise in complex environments, thereby improving the accuracy of defect detection. Finally, to address the limitations of traditional detection models in semantic description, we designed an encoder and decoder based on a cross-attention mechanism to achieve cross-modal mapping between images and text. By using the BLIP model driven by a text filtering mechanism, the model can generate corresponding textual descriptions of the defects based on the detection results. The functionality not only provides maintenance personnel with more intuitive references but also greatly enhances the efficiency of fault handling. Experimental results validate the effectiveness of our method. The proposed insulator defect detection model achieved the mAP_0.5 of 93.04% and the AR and F1-score of up to 83.22% and 82.91%. The BLEU achieved 83.51%, with CIDEr of 1.94, ROUGE-L of 81.59%, METEOR of 51.50%, and SPICE of 37.88%.
The experimental results lead to the following conclusions: (1) Utilizing a large-kernel spatial selection feature extraction network as the image encoder enhances the insulator defect detection network's ability to focus on key features, thereby improving the model's detection accuracy. (2) To address the issue of insulator defect detection being easily disturbed by complex background environments, a detection decoder with a fusion diffusion mechanism was designed. This decoder performs inverse Bayesian diffusion on the noise boxes generated by the decoder, restoring the prediction of the insulator's true bounding box. The model's ability to resist background interference reduces the loss of semantic information related to insulator defects, and enhances the accuracy of the predicted bounding boxes. (3) A cross-modal mapping module was designed to map the relationship between insulator image defect features and text features. The language modeling encoder outputs a textual description of the insulator defects, completing the detection task. Thus, the proposed model not only offers higher detection accuracy but also generates accurate and detailed semantic descriptions of the defects, meeting the actual needs for insulator defect detection and description.

Electromagnetic pulse welding (EMPW), an advanced solid-phase welding technology for dissimilar metals, has garnered extensive applications across domains such as electric power transmission, automotive manufacturing, and refrigeration equipment due to its distinctive advantages. However, the Al-Cu joints welded by this technique encounter challenges regarding forming an intermediate layer comprising intermetallic compounds and cracks at the weld seam, which reduces the weld's mechanical performance. Based on the formation mechanism of the interface morphology and the necessary conditions for electromagnetic pulse welding, a method to regulate the electromagnetic pulse welding interface using a dual-coil structure was proposed. This method aimed to suppress the generation of the intermetallic compound intermediate layer in the weld seam by diminishing the horizontal component of the movement velocity at the welding interface, thereby reducing the shear effect at the interface. To validate the efficacy of this approach, an electromechanical coupled finite element simulation model was utilized to compare the electromagnetic parameter distribution characteristics during the EMPW process based on single and dual-coil structures. The experimental results from the high-speed camera verified the simulation of the plate movement process and results revealed that the horizontal component of interface velocity decreased by using the dual-coil structure. A scanning electron microscope was employed to analyze the micro-morphology of the welding interface. The results showed that the welding interface based on a dual-coil structure mainly included the wave and straight types, while the interface via single-coil included the vortex type. The findings indicated that joints welded using a single-coil structure EMPW method exhibited a pronounced intermediate layer at the interface. In contrast, those welded using the double-coils structure EMPW method failed to show the formation of an intermediate layer at the interface, exhibiting a reduced shear effect on the interface morphology and superior mechanical properties. Besides, the line scanning results of the welding interface based on a dual-coil structure reflect a monotonic change in elements, while the welding interface of a single-coil structure exhibits regional oscillations in elements. Overall, the effectiveness of this method in suppressing the formation of intermetallic compounds was validated at the interface. Utilization of a dual-coil structure can reduce the shear effect at the interface by controlling the horizontal component of the plastic flow, thereby suppressing the formation of intermetallic compounds and enhancing the tensile performance of the welded joints. This study contributes to understanding the physical mechanisms of the electromagnetic pulse welding process, which is of great significance for the research and development of high-performance, lightweight heterogeneous metal composite materials and the advancement of lightweight manufacturing.

The arc plasma torch can be used for pre experiments on ground erosion performance testing of spacecraft flight materials，which can save costs. The three-phase AC arc plasma torch has the advantages of simple power supply and reliable operation. The hollow electrode structure with dual inlet channels can not only improve the electrode life, but also achieve a wider range of power control. However, the design of plasma torches with this type of electrode structure is more complex and there is limited research and application in China. A three-phase AC plasma torch with magnetic motion, tangential inlet, and supersonic jet was developed and numerically modeled and experimentally studied.
Firstly, a three-dimensional turbulent MHD multiphysics coupling simulation model of a hollow electrode three-phase AC arc plasma torch with a dual end inlet structure was established, and the flow state and electric thermal characteristics of the arc plasma inside the torch were obtained. Secondly, the influence laws of air intake, working current, air intake distribution ratio, and working frequency on the electric field, magnetic field, temperature field, flow field distribution, and arc characteristics inside the plasma torch were studied and revealed. Finally, the correctness of the numerical model was verified by comparing the arc voltage, nozzle outlet temperature, and arc root position under various operating conditions in simulation and experiment.
The conclusion drawn from the study is as follows: (1) In a three-phase AC plasma torch, aerodynamic and electromagnetic forces dominate the flow characteristics of the arc root. During the process of increasing the intake volume from 30 g/s to 60 g/s, the cooling effect of the gas flowing along the wall is greater than the heat generated by the arc column, resulting in a downward trend in temperature; And the larger the intake volume, the more obvious the compression effect of the cold air layer on the arc, and the higher the arc pressure; The higher the working current, the higher the plasma temperature and jet velocity. (2) In a hollow electrode AC plasma torch with dual inlet ducts, changing the air intake distribution ratio can alter the position of the arc root along the electrode axis and the magnitude of the output power. Increasing the air intake distribution ratio can make the arc more significantly stretched in the axial direction, the arc longer, and the arc root closer to the arc back cover. (3) When the operating frequency is 1 kHz, the arc has a more stable motion trend, and the rotation speed of the arc root is five times that of the power frequency. The contact area with the electrode is reduced, which reduces the degree of electrode erosion and can improve the electrode life.

Applying the vacuum switch in the more-electric aircraft intermediate frequency (IF 360~800 Hz) power system is a new application field, which can solve the difficulties caused by the increase of current frequency and the limited breaking ability of electrical appliances. The anode activity of the vacuum arc determines the post-arc state and interruption ability of the vacuum switchgear, especially at high current, and the anode can actively emit metal vapor, plasma and metal droplets. Because of the special environment of the vacuum chamber, it is difficult to directly measure the physical quantity of the post-arc state, such as arc pressure, by using the sensor, so non-contact measurement means is generally adopted. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of the post-arc characteristics of intermediate frequency vacuum arcs, the visual tracking techniques such as object detection and Intersection over Union Tracker were utilized to analyze arc images in this paper. The splatter trajectories of post-arc metal droplets were reconstructed in three dimensions. Based on the reconstruction, the spatial pressure gradient inside the arc was determined.
Firstly, an intermediate frequency vacuum arc experimental system was established, along with a dual high-speed camera stereoscopic arc imaging system. Secondly, the experimental results of the intermediate frequency vacuum arc were analyzed, revealing post-arc voltage oscillations and metal droplet ejection phenomena during interruption failure. Thirdly, utilizing visual tracking techniques such as Canny edge detection, connected component analysis, and IoU, along with the mapping relationship from arc plane to three-dimensional space, a method for analyzing the pressure gradient of the post-arc vacuum arc was developed. The detection and tracking performance of arc images were evaluated using metrics such as precision, recall, MOTA, and MOTP, achieving values of 91.69%, 84.28%, 87.19%, and 82.63%, respectively, indicating excellent visual tracking results. Finally, using the aforementioned theories and methods, a comprehensive analysis of the post-arc characteristics of the intermediate frequency vacuum arc was conducted.
The following conclusions can be drawn from the analysis: (1) According to experimental results, when post-arc breakdown occurs after the intermediate-frequency current crosses zero, the arc voltage exhibits high-frequency oscillations with a frequency of approximately 50 kHz. The voltage stabilizes within about 2 ms. During the post-arc period, dual-view arc images reveal substantial outward ejection of metal droplets. (2) By employing visual tracking algorithms and spatial mapping relations, the three-dimensional ejection process of metal droplets during the post-arc breakdown can be reconstructed. The acceleration in all three directions reaches the order of 10⁵ m/s², with ejection velocities on the order of 10 m/s. The pressure gradient within the arc chamber can reach 1.2 MPa/mm, and the time scale for droplets to travel from the contact edge to the inner wall of the arc chamber is milliseconds. (3) The vapor density of Cu on the surface of the metal droplets is 2.2×10¹⁹ m^-3. Throughout the ejection process of milliseconds scale, the metal droplets continuously evaporate, reducing the Cu mass fraction on the droplet surface from 65% to 10%. A significant amount of Cu vapor enters the arc chamber through diffusion and convection, weakening the dielectric recovery strength post-arc. During this period, post-arc breakdown and high-frequency voltage oscillations occur.